Saturday, April 12, 2008

Archbishop: Welsh devolution settlement is ‘immoral’

So, God supports more devolution, does he? Anglican bishops and archbishops seems to be polarised between the politico-theologically impressive (York, Rochester) and the theological-politically naïve (Oxford, Canterbury), and Barry Morgan, the Archbishop of Wales, falls quite firmly in the latter camp. He has stated that the present devolution settlement for Wales is ‘immoral’, and that that only by giving the Welsh Assembly ‘full law-making powers’ can this immorality be rectified.

Immoral? How can a constituent part of the United Kingdom within a liberal democratic framework of freedom, equality and tolerance be in any sense immoral?

Slavery is immoral; prostitution is immoral; what’s going on in Zimbabwe, Darfur and Tibet is immoral. One has to wonder if this archbishop has any clue about the theological meaning of the term. Moral law is the idea of that set of standards outlined in the Decalogue, and Cranmer is intrigued to learn that the Welsh Bible must include ‘Thou shalt not have a devolution settlement inferior to that of the Scots’. Moral requirements have the form of Kantian categorical imperatives which prescribe what is to be done regardless of what one may want.

So what the Archbishop wants is not remotely concerned with morality, and his insistence that devolution is a moral precept is akin to saying that God is a Protestant Unionist.

Of course, in Ulster, he may be.

The Archbishop is right, however, in his insistence that religion could not be ‘separate from life’, and that people in his position ‘can't divorce themselves from the life of politics because politics is about the way we organise ourselves in society and, therefore every single aspect of life ought to have relevance to the Gospel’. But his expression is a personal one, and he is wrong to give the impression that the Anglican Church has a position on Welsh devolution.

Conservative Monmouth MP David Davies criticised the Archbishop saying: ‘What disappoints me is that the most senior member of the Anglican Church in Wales is using his position to put forward a political point of view which he may - and is perfectly entitled to - hold, but he's not making it clear that this is a personal view. He's doing so wearing his crown and mitre, as it were, and frankly I think that's very disappointing, especially when there are so many issues that you would expect the Anglican church to be speaking out at the moment about.’

Cranmer thinks that is load of poppycock as well.

What disappoints Cranmer is that the most senior (namesake-recognised?) Conservative MP in Wales is using his position to put forward a point of view which he may - and is perfectly entitled to - hold, but he's not making it clear that this is a personal view. He's doing so as a member of the House of Commons, as it were, and frankly he thinks that's very disappointing, especially when there are so many issues that you would expect the Conservative Party to be speaking out at the moment about.

Conservatives saying things that are counterproductive to this obvious primary end, are the only things that should shock.

Unfortunately it has long since been the case that the Conservative Party has become simply a force of reaction against things that socialism is ideologically designed to create. Such as poverty, wars, spiritual confusion and masses of both personal and government debt.

The purpose of a Conservative Party in government, is managing Britons industrial, moral, and other things, decline as best as possible , while paying the banks back with interest.

Expect little of an actual Conservative government and one will not be so disappointed. Just be happy that just about anything at all, is better the a Labour government. It will take far more then a British political party to sort out even half of this countries problems, even given 20 years in which to do so.

your grace i am not sure that wales would benefit by devolution in the same way as scotland thinks . Scotland has number of premium export products which are known through out the world. wales has some marvellous food but it quickly gets consumed in home markets .

the bishop of wales may well be of rowan williams kidney , however i disagree with your post , the bishop of wales has not made any ecnomic case for independent wales , so in some ways he may well be advocating a financial illness for wales , so quite right of david davies to have a go . i think its is right that the banal platitudes of liberation speak is somewhat poor if it is later to be found out as being unecnomically sound ?

we are already struggleing to extarcate our selves from a credit honey trap , encouraged by our labour governement , it appears the archbishop may be thinking another one needs proposing to make us forget ??

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)